An exciting instrumental version of Los Bravos' hit single, done sitar-style. Playing pop music on the sitar must be difficult, since it never was the most melodic of instruments. Lord Sitar is the best I've heard of the psychsploitation musicians that briefly came into vogue around 1967 or so.

Wonderfull song about a husband and wife who hate each other.
The Mountain Goats are ussualy very lo-fi but this release gave them a newfound hi-fi multi-instrumented sound.
This song is a whimsical hate fest
"i hope the rising black smoke carries me away
and i never come back to this town again
in my life i hope i lie
and tell everyone you were a good wife
and i hope you die
i hope we both die"

The song I want played at my wedding.

Take me back to the smoky room and an era I never lived but can easily dream.

80's reggae. Entire album is fabulous.

A very lengthy, dark instrumental by the undisputed gods of post-rock.
It's extremely moody, building up slowly as with their other work, into a wall of distorted guitars and violins.
You'd need a fairly long attention span to fully appreciate it though.

Rock song with awesome guitar.

Featuring a strange assortment of melodic percussion instruments, brass and punctuated with animal calls which are only equaled by those of Roger Waters on Pink Floyd's Umma Gumma, this is BY FAR the strangest (and coolest) version of this song ever recorded. The Residents must have developed their whole series of Mark of the Mole albums after hearing this recording. "Diga Diga Doo" was originally a show tune for a Broadway review called The Blackbirds of 1928.

An excellent cut, with wailing big band brass and cool vibes. The song is quite familiar - musically it is an early draft of the standard 'Black coffee', sounding similar, but slightly sped-up. The percussion is also excellent - lots of bongos. Overall, the sound recalls some of Mancini's best 50s work, but somehow sounds even more vital and brilliant to me. Milt's work on the vibes also seems to have influenced Angelo Badalamenti (his David Lynch soundtrack work, anyway), and the solo work of Barry Adamson.

The prototypical Mardi Gras "Black Indian" song. A song as exciting & diverse as New Orleans itself.

Lots of Cilla's earlier material was top quality, this Lennon/McCartney song (never actually recorded by the Fabs) knocked me out when I first heard it on my cousin's Dansette in 1964. Spooky melody which almost strays into jazz territory in the instrumental break. Sophisticated pop of the highest order.

I'm no Cilla fan. While I've enjoyed many of her recordings, she was no match as an artist for such contemporaries as Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, Lulu, or even Pet Clark, Sandie Shaw, and Jackie DeShannon, all who did very similar material. Still, Cilla had one advantage the others didn't, Lennon-McCartney tunes written with her in mind. I think the Beatles, who knew her well, understood her vocal limitations and provided songs that would show her to best advantage.
"It's For You" is certainly one of the finest recordings she ever made. Its jazzy arrangement, the edgy key changes, and the tempo shifts are as sophisticated as they were unique in 1960s Britpop. The music contributes to a sense of intrigue to the clever, ironic lyrics that pretend to dismiss love only to give it. Cilla rises to the occasion, giving what might well be her best performance ever--stunning!

My experience of Boogaloo, a style to which I'm quite new, has been varied. In short, I love some of it and don't quite get the rest. The key to me seems to be the right instrumental and percussive blend, and vocals that don't dominate too much.

Although it sounds quite generic, this track manages to satisfy me on the criteria above. From a very lucky thrift store find (this album is up there with James Brown's 'Black Caesar' among my top bargains ever), this opens with a nice solid groove, featuring saxophone, brass and layered, relentless percussion. The vocals seem pretty much off-the-cuff - the main 'Boogaloo baby - baby baby do the boogaloo' is joined by a mixture of muttered Spanish and screaming. The attraction of this song is really the texture - it can't really claim any musical or lyrical sophistication. But the instrumentation and groove are really first rate.

This 1965 cover of a then new songwriter Randy Newman was a moderate hit for Cilla in the UK reaching No.17. It is superbly sung and arranged, indeed Randy Newman has said on numerous occasions that Cilla's version of this is his favourite version of all his songs. Dusty also recorded this in 1965, taking it slightly slower than Cilla, but an excellent version nonetheless.

This is one of the supreme examples of the ballad genre that Cilla Black excelled in during the 1960s. An exquisite song of love gone wrong, the track demonstrates the full depth, quality and range of Cilla's extraordinary voice - from the delicate soft tones to the full powered belt. A huge hit for Cilla in 1965, reaching #5 in the UK Top 40.

westbury music fair, new york - saturday march 20th 2004 21:00

jay black walks onto the stage balls first, sings every song that ever mattered, smashes a guitar over someone's head, and then tells the audience to f*ck off as he walks into the wings.

jay black - 1
westbury township - 0

jay black is the standard by which all other men should be measured. i remember hearing "this magic moment" on the radio for the first time when i was six-years-old and being awestruck by his vocals.

those who have not yet been initiated to the phenomenon that is jay black should immediately run to the nearest record store and pick up a copy of "come a little bit closer - the best of jay and the americans".

he will delight you with great signature tunes like "some enchanted evening", "walking in the rain", "sunday and me", and many more... you'll love him... i love him!!

Up fer listening to some snotty American teens brag about how utterly monged they all are?!... Lord, just writing that there sentence makes me want to clutch my head and groan� �well exactly, so how does no strike you?� Fair, it strikes me as fair. But hear me out. You see, these drug-addled Wailers set their braggings against a backdrop of the crankiest, mankiest rock�n�roll the wrong side of the Sonics. �Is that the tape disintegrating?�, �Do I hear the wallpaper of heaven being torn down?� No, you don�t, that�s the music. �And is that the �Satisfaction� riff honk-honking like an ocean liner in a storm?� Aye yes captain, like the truest garage rockers they filch their riffs from the big leaguers (listen to that other meisterwerk �Psychotic Reaction�). It�s a genre that favours execution over original ideas, and man the Wailers execute that �Satisfaction� riff alright. Yes, sir, by the end there�s black smoke billowing out like burning plastic. ��And I can hear a�a wicked organ swirling around in the cacophony. It sounds really big, like it was recorded in a church, you know like that Belle & Sebastian track� �Lazy Line Painter Jane�?� �well, yeah� I suppose�

�Still these lyrics though�? I cannae bear kids, ANYONE, recounting their drunken, drugged, whatever, adventures out on the town. ESPECIALLY when every other word is �crazy�. I thought psychedelic drugs were meant to expand your mind?� Well, yeah, I agree, but like when you listen to any other drug-addled teen, your brain just switches them off after a time, �out runnin� around/seein� every crazy sight� ma na na na ma na ma ma!� At least until the chorus, when the kids notice you drifting, and jolt your slumbering brain by bellowing in your ear, �HEY! We gotta be� OUT OF OUR TREE!!! OUT OF OUR TREE!�� Yes, yes, it certainly sounds like it.

"Dressed in black, he walks alone, a shadow in the night." The Shangri-Las death trip reached a powerful climax in this eerie song of loss and lingering. Funereal piano chords balanced by surging choruses and a closing spoken section that leaves you as weak as the sadly wounded narrator. If this one doesn't get to you, you ain't got a heart.

"Don't you know that my hate is everlasting, baby?" The story of the Monks is the story of rock & roll...in an alternate reality, perhaps. Take a bunch of bored US servicemen stationed in Germany about to be discharged, put them in a band, and have them decide to freak out the establishment by dressing in black capes, shaving their heads into monk's tonsures and wearing nooses as neckties. Perhaps not so shocking in these days after punk rock, but this was 1965. Oh, and don't forget the electric banjo. What began as a fairly standard surf/beat combo called the Torquays mutated into this band, churning out some of the most nihilistic music you've ever heard, even by German standards.

Punk really was born in the sixties. This song, perhaps THE classic of its genre, oozes with energy and rage. The fuzz guitar sound is pure evil and when it comes in you just bless the stereophonic effect. Like The Velvet Underground, this song must've made a lot of people start a band.
The band wore black and had black instruments. They tuned their guitars a full step lower to make their sound more threatening. It worked. And all this back in '66.

My personal favorite version of this song. Cilla Black has a very rich and powerful voice that is just right! She sings it with much more feeling than Dionne Warwick's more popular version a year later. Burt Bacharach originally wanted to use this recording on the soundtrack to the film 'Alfie', but Ms. Black declined.

This beautiful cover of the Beatles song was buried on a b-side in the UK in 1966,it deserved to have been a big hit for Cilla. Cilla's treatment and George Martin's arrangement make this essential listening.

A 60's Italian soundtrack tune that magically combines Pop and Renaissance. Harpsichord and wordless vocals (here, by I Marc 4) were not uncommon in the 60's, but here they are together: if only church music really sounded like this! From a killer sountrack album that has several treatments of about three or four excellent base melodies - all of them excellent. Worth every penny.

Any North American readers may already be familiar with this haunting folk-rock number, as I believe it's a bit of an FM staple over there. For UK-based music fans such as myself, however, it's a bolt from the blue. Imagine a combination of The Mamas & The Papas and Jefferson Airplane at their spookiest, with shedloads of virtuoso violin and flanged percussion all the way through.

One more note: the self-titled album from which this song comes has an absolutely gorgeous cover (see http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000000DPF.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg), but the re-release is just white type on black - shame on Columbia.

So surprised that the composer, Mr. Bruce Blackman wrote a comment on Mrs. Bluebird's recommendation of this site! And this song "Rumor" ,their first single, was also written by him and Keith Olsen. Beautifully pop melody, intertwined harmony and good sense of guitar arrangement...It's like a comfortable summer breeze. Though I do love "The Other Side of Me", "I Wanna Be With You" and "Mrs. Bluebird" as well, this is the best track in me.

The perfect theme to Roman Polanski's underrated comic horror film, The Fearless Vampire Killers. With stacked vocal harmonies, suggesting the background singers at some sort of Bulgarian black mass, floating on bat wings over a very jazzy rhythm section, this song is, at once, very creepy and very funny. I have long believed that Siouxsie and The Banshees came into existence entirely due this influence of this track. (Play it back to back with "Switch" or "Israel" or "Cascade" sometime, and you'll see what I mean.) Stereolab likewise. Broadcast or Goldfrapp could do a brilliant cover of it.

Wilson Simonal's mix of Brazilian soft pop and soul cause him to be a pivotal figure in the growth of the "Black Rio" funk scene. This track, classed as one of Brazil's "soul standards" bounces along with a laid back groove, brass and cheekiness.

great song. because it starts off in a relaxed easy listening mood, the big paul mccartney chorus caught me completely offguard on first listen. Hasn�t left my playlist since...the demo version is superb, too.

I went to a funeral today, which is never going to be the most pleasant way of spending time. However, it was a humanist service and, as such, an appropriate and touching way to remember the individual concerned. Music was played, including Why? by The Communards: a great thing. Not neccessarily a brilliant song, but a very unusual choice.

Of course, events like this spark everyone off thinking and talking about their own fitting ends. I nominate this; a bit of Nina would be great at a funeral. I love the black farce of this track, and what a great piece of final gallows humour to play a song about hell as the curtains close around your coffin in the crematorium.

A track unearthed from the archives in 1997 by Cilla's son, its fabulous and should have been a single.

Both shocking and extremely cool, this has to be heard to be believed - a 'rock' adapation of Rachmanninov's Prelude in C# minor which really does rock. Cy Coleman lays a huge funky breakbeat and a heavy bassline on top of the beautifully dark, doomy theme. A jazzy guitar comes in and out as the track builds. I've never heard anything quite like it (I mean that in a good way). I am now unable to hear the original piece without Cy Coleman's breakbeat!

Ahh, how much I love Eternity's Children's sounds...
A week ago, I bought their CD where 25 songs in, as my bootleg's mix was terrible and no main vocal on Lifetime Day! Anyway, now I enjoy its perfect tracks, especially Lifetime Day, Your World and this song Sunshine Among Us. I do love Sunshine..'s catchy melody, beautifully thick effected harmonies and groovy backing rythm section including keyboards.
By the way, the liner notes says " However, each year, on the day before Thanksgiving, Bruce Blackman leads members of various Eternity's Children lineups at a benefit in Greenville, Mississippi featuring reunions of the area's best-loved acts" wow...this year also?!?!...I really wanna join the event!!

totally amazing, swinging piece of japanese vocal-centered 60's big band sound. i�m especially fond of the tarzan-esque way her voice bends at about 2:54, and the uh! ah! sounds of the backup singers. this needs to get its own movie scene ala the big dance number in sabu's "monday", if anyone's seen that.

Regular visitors to this site will know I'm partial to this song and to the era of this recording. But nothing could have prepared me for the mind-blowing grooviness this Petula Clark version from 1968. It has a 'slightly too slow to dance to' funkiness, kind of like the tastiest version of 'Watermelon man' you ever heard. The arrangement has piano, bouncy drums, peppy brass, flutes, and to top it all, some beautiful strings adding some complexity to what is basically a simple bluesy composition.

Isn't it great when you come across a track and just think 'this is the best thing ever'?

The entire CD is great - 28 of Petula's grooviest tracks. I recommend it!

This is a blistering version of this Joe South song which was a hit in America for The Osmonds. It was originally on Cilla's 1968 album 'Sheroo'. You can hear it on on CD on Cilla's 'Cilla In The 60's'. Cilla's version of this is brilliant, she really gets going and gives it everything.

That rarest of anomalys, psychedelic Northern soul,a strange land where a late sixties slice of psyche pop can run amok with soul legends and funk obscurities in some dingy cellar club in the middle of Blackpool.Innocent and as catchy as hell ,some de riguer flanging and Who style backing vocals cannot deter this song from its righteous melodic path.

An AMAZING rearrangement of "Eleanor Rigby". Earland kills on organ, and he's backed up by the incredible Melvin Sparks on guitar and Houston Person on tenor sax. An absolute classic of Hammond jazz.

This was Cilla's longest single, clocking in at over 4 minutes, an oddly paced ballad that gradually builds, it is one of those songs that takes a while to take hold, but once it has you're hooked. This is one of Cilla's best performances on disc, and it deservedly reached No. 7 in the UK in 1969

A lovely version of this Beatles song which appeared on a 1969 album by Cilla. When it appeared on a compilation CD recently Q maga in the UK raved about it.

This is a great version of the song from 'Hair', when I first bought the Cilla album from which this came, this for me was intially the stand-out track. Its a very powerful version and Cilla really does justice to it.

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin played on 3 tracks of Joe Cocker's 1st album. This is an old song which has been slowed down and Page's guitar work is really decent on this track. Cocker's voice (he was touted as the best blues singer in UK at that time by Eric Clapton)is pristine. Also check out "Sandpaper Cadillac" and "Do I Still Figure in Your Life" as well!

a norwegian language version of the song "if i thought you'd ever change your mind". the instrumental part is pretty similar to the original, only a bit more stripped.
it's the vocals that really shine here. the singer, rannveig kvello, isn't all that good a singer, but her voice has an interesting quality wich adds an incredible sense of quiet desperation to the lyrics (they are pretty different from the english language version. still pretty cheesy, but with far darker overtones than the original. they remind me of glenn close's bunny boiling character in fatal attraction)
not really a fantastic recording by any means, but there's something in it that seems to tickle nerve in me.
the chances of finding this are probably pretty slim, as far as i know it's only on vinyl and was probably only available in scandinavia.(i found it while pillaging a danish flea market. )

Bid band with violins, wind instruments (? i mean saxofons or trumpets), Curtis on guitar and everything with good arrangements.

I just try NOT to spoil this one of a kind artist with my bad english. Songs in this album pour essence from racial discrimination, political and drug problems. I think this was one of those songs that made black men to organize and to gain self-respect to reclaim their human rights.

I like the thing that you really can feel that Curtis has something on his mind, something important to tell about, not just telling how to make love and have good time. This places this song above others.

People are fucked and politicians say: "don't worry" - and still there is hope. Let's hope so.

i heard this song for the first time in spain at the purple weekend. the dj (mike stax) is as rather famous guy in the mod/garage/60's-scene. so i didn't have the guts to mail him about it for a year or so. but eventually i did and he gave me the details and told me that it was his girlfriend ho spun it. the song is a weird version of black sabbath's paranoid. i love this stuff. can be found on some german comps various artists as well as c&b comps. i saw the original cornet single on ebay a couple of months ago for a mere $180.

A bewitching song about a young woman who, to win the hand of a handsome knight, does her rival sister in. The dead girl then comes back to haunt the �black-haired bride� as a harp fashioned from her breast bone and three locks of her hair. �Cruel� may seem too kindly a description of a girl who when her sister pleads, �Oh Sister, Sister, let me live, and all that�s mine I�ll surely give� says, �It�s your own true love I have and more, but thou shalt never come ashore� before abandoning her body to the rough North Sea. Cruel? Should the sister therefore be scalded for her little� transgression? She�s an evil and monstrous sister, surely? But then this is centuries past, a time when sibling murder and human harps were commonplace. I am not likely to understand in this more civilised 21st century. Which may be why the kids don�t really dig British folk music anymore, or the mighty Pentangle. And it�s a crying shame because this is a stunning track, hauntingly sung by Jacqui McShee. I hesitate to use the term �masterpiece� in case that great oracle of musicaltaste.com, fmars, overhears and tells me that I�m wrong.

So, the song is called 'James Brown' and is written by a teacher, Nancy Dupree, with her students who are heard singing. It was recorded in 1970. By all reports a strong-headed and hearted woman, Nancy Dupree had much motivation for social causes and artistic output which didn't reach far beyond her home town of Rochester, NY, until the last decade or so. It was during this last decade that I first came across this track on a German compilation focussing on 'black movement' songs.

The track itself is interesting, but obviously very serious for the students as they sing about their hero. It's innocence, yet clear ability to capture a moment in time, is probably more real than many blaxploitation or struggle albums that were recorded around the same time. Ultimately though, it's one of those tracks that is unusual and makes me think "how did this come to be?". I think we should all sing:

Ugh... With your bad self
Ugh... It's funky
Ugh... I can�t stand it
Ugh... Good God

The kind of overlooked track that makes Frank Jastfelder and Stefan Kassel's soundtrack series so great. I find this a very refreshing take on the familiar James Bond theme. Ivor Raymonde's arrangment really sells the composition in the context of the Lettermen-styled vocal harmonies of the Bachelors without losing any of the energy of the John Barry/Shirley Bassey original. I particularly like the way Raymonde implements the steel guitar here.

This, friends, is the swingingest and most bizarre version of this chestnut you will ever hear. Having recently left the Cantores De Ebano (Ebony Singers), sort of a 60s Brazilian version of Sounds Of Blackness, Noriel Vilela, possessor of an impossibly deep, rumbling basso profundo capable of blowing your speakers, embarked on a brief yet fondly-remembered solo career. This witty reworking of the Tennessee Ernie Ford original replaces the country-western-pop of the original with a rollicking samba-rock rhythm and Portuguese lyrics extolling how much fun samba is, sung by a voice from deep in the crypt that swings like crazy. It stops everybody who hears it dead in their tracks and is the guaranteed highlight of any party. What Messrs. Ford and Travis would have made of it is anybody's guess, but this version refuses to die, having recently become a hit in Brazil all over again, 30 years after its first release. I've heard many, many versions of "Sixteen Tons," but believe me, this one truly runs away with the prize!!

lilac and deep blue/velvet symmetry where all emotions are filtered thru sound to encase the listener in suffocating oblivion; i drown in good music like i do in a crowd of people, but for different reasons

Typical Blaxbloitation sound with the divine guitar of Curtis completing it. Makes me wish i were born black and living in NY in the 70's. Mayfield's finest hour for sure.

This song has been getting a lot of well-deserved attention lately as a re-issue. This is a pants-wetting monster, with a tough, stunning, and powerful sound that really defies description. It's richly soulful funk, slow, psychedelic, pensive, viscous, and extremely affecting. A great variety of sounds in the instrumentation, rhodes, flute, baritone sax, sax, congas, bass, guitar, drums, with no single instrument dominating the track. All the instruments shine together however, in a very spare and sensible arrangement. We should all be thankful that this was found and once again given some proper spotlight.

From her 1973 EMI Album "Day By Day" - this version of the song from the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" is regarded by the song's lyricist Tim Rice as THE definitive version. Cilla's interpretation of this wonderful song is absolutely magnificent. She brings her enormous capacity to convincingly interpret haunting ballads to its full potential with this song. Receiving extensive radio airplay when the album was released, had the song been released as a single I'm sure it would have produced her third #1 hit in the UK.

In order to fully examine the minds of torment and depression, one would need to be familiar with Nick Drake's 'Black Eyed Dog.' With his transcendant ability to translate his demons into song, Nick Drake accounts a supernatural phantasm chasing him through the darkness of his own neurosis. 'Black eyed dog he claws at my door' - sung in his upper register, with the use of heavey falcetto, sounds like he is straining to survive a nightmare. His performance, despite the sparse production of acoustic guitar and vocal, is expansive. Use of harmonics and finger roll on this song proves the mastery of his instrument, as an amateur guitarist I am baffled by the sound he can create. The singular pulse of the guitar string rings-out with a delicate harmonic while the layering of other voices continue subtly underneath. And the result is the tragic embrace of his own psychological deterioration; a horror unlike the Macabre style of the French, it stands as its own haunting style, that of 'Drakesque.'

As we know his depression did finally catch up to him, and as a revisionist I would say that Nick knew it would all along, sooner or later. One would only need to hear this song and some of the pieces are put into place.

I love John Barry. Actually he doesn't seem like such a great guy personally, but I love a lot of his music. This track was originally composed for the soundtrack of the 1971 film 'Mary, Queen of Scots'. However, the sound is very modern. The track is built around a recurring piano riff (which incidentally was sampled by the group Chapterhouse on their 1991 indie/shoegazing single 'mesmerize'), and the tune is played by a synthesized, echoey harpsichord. It's a delightfully simple but very catchy track which stands up to repeated listening.

This is an amazing song. Even if you hate it, it's amazing. It sounds evil, and glorious, scary, and ecstatic, all so quickly and powerfully. I don't know how to describe how it sounds, other than a tad insane. And beautiful.

Discreet Music is quite a lengthy CD. The actual piece Discreet Music is over half an hour long and evokes Eno's wonderful Music for Airports.

Also included are three related pieces and this, Fullness of Wind, is the first of three variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel. It's the best of the three - and well worth a bang.

Eno fragments, overlays and slows different parts of the original score to create a beautiful ambient work. Kinda Steve Reich meets Godspeed you Black Emperor (without the guitars).

desperate

Belle Epoque (or La Belle Epoque as they were billed in the UK, presumably to further Francophy them) get shoved in that black hole of Eurodisco, based on the evidence of their perky 1977 cover of Black Is Black. Were I not a Eurodisco weirdo who is more than happy to delve into the careers of various sequin-chested nobodies I would never have learned the truth.

This song is as glam-rock as they come. The sound of Miss Broadway is that of a female Noddy Holder, complete with that talking-over-a-hairdryer voice. The orchestration is crunching and stomps all over the disco beat holding it all together.

In short: Silver Convention's older sisters who secretly like Wanda Jackson.

Nico Fidenco scored all of the infamous "Emanuelle Nera" movies and these are a demonstration of pure, unadulterated sleaze, but very solidly arranged and composed with wordless female vocals, rich strings, flutes, horns, trumpets, percussion etc. All scores were released seperately in Japan, but for a very nice introduction the Dagored compilation "Black Emanuelle's Groove" is sufficient.

If you had one of the premium movie channels in the 1980's, you may have happened across a late-night showing of the Softcore-Porn-Musical film "Cinderella". While several of the musical numbers are quite good and rather amusing, the best song (imho) is "Art to Zebras", performed by 'Fairy Godmother' (a stereotypical crossdressing gay black man). This song is basically a list of all of the items he has stolen from the townspeople... and being that the film was made in 1977, yes, it is a disco number. Definitely a relic of it's time but nonetheless a great number from one of the films I keep in my Guilty Pleasure Chest.

�Something Better Change� was released in July of 1977 as the first single from The Stranglers upcoming second album No More Heroes which would appear in mid September. Along with the albums title track, �Something Better Change� would signal a move in a more overtly pop direction that was only hinted at on the group�s first album and would manage to peak at #9 on the U.K. singles chart. This is not to say that The Stranglers abandon their reputation as caustic agitators as No More Heroes was littered with politically contentious tracks such as �I Feel Like A Wog�, �Bring On The Nubiles� and �Bitching�, but the song�s infectious guitar riff and winning melody suggests a tenuous party rock atmosphere. It�s left to singer J.J. Burnel�s particularly gruff vocal performance to keep thing in the punk zone as he alternates between a gnarly throated delivery and a melodic toned timbre. Pumping organ and a buoyant mid-tempo rhythmic romp keep the energy high as he confronts the status quo with a tirade against stifling apathy, flaunting the punk new order with the taunting second verse, �Don�t you like the way I dance? / Does it bug you? / Don�t you like the cut of my clothes? / Don�t you like the way I seem to enjoy it? / Stick my finger right up your nose!� The bridge becomes a jubilant anthem where Burnel voices a punk battle cry to a flurry of organ runs and a growling bass line, �Something�s happening and it�s happening right now / You�re too blind to see it / Something�s happening and it�s happening right now / Ain�t got time to wait�. The chorus is a simple statement, Burnel demanding �Something better change!� with support from the boys in the band who join in for a group shout. Ironically, the arrangement also shows signs of classic rock moves, including a stinging guitar solo and an old school build up of the chorus late in the track.
(AMG)

Sheer joy to listen to - a perfect example of the extended melodic heavy rock song. Superb control of tension and release. Super arrangement and guitar playing. Currently very under-valued...

In a Morricone mood today...just a quickie.
From the soundtrack of The Exorcist 2, this insane little ditty sounds like a fifty-fifty mix of the Batman theme and library music "black metal", with added harpsichord and italian-style wordless screaming. There's also a middle eastern thing going on in there, and the whole ting is just madly energetic.
This song makes me happy in ways it probably wasn't supposed to.

This is the final track off their 1982 LP "Heartache", which is the Most Underrated LP Of All Time, and one of the three or four best of the 1980s!! The song actually sounds quite a bit like David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (which it preceded by about 18 months, in case anybody wants to raise plagiarism issues), only serious instead of stupid.
It's one of the more subdued tracks on the LP, which I would characterize as being most like the livelier end of Simple Minds (say "Sparkle In The Rain" or "Once Upon A Time"-era), but with a powerful lead singer who is probably closest to Jay Black of '60s hitmakers Jay and the Americans, or maybe Gary Puckett of the Union Gap (I am not knocking Jim Kerr's vocals by the way).

The full track listing for this wonderful LP: Time After Time, Living In A Heartache, Madelaine, L'Image Craquee, Spirits; The World, Dancing Inside You, Major Major, Too Late To Fly The Flag, Standing In The Rain. Produced by Mick Glossop.

Opening with a brat beating bass and melody that is scarily reminiscent of some late 70s euro disco pathos, it�s only when Brian James� raunchy guitar kicks in that you know you�re well away from the lights of that dance floor and in the grips of a very different master. A hedonistic web of Bators� beloved conspiracy theorizing, the logical successor to the Wanderers� paranoia-packed repertoire, �Open Your Eyes� previewed a closet of horrors that embraced organized religion, the impending World Tour of Pope John Paul II, Bolshevik plots and Ronald Reagan�s apparent rush towards nuclear Armageddon. With session man Matt Black�s synthesizers giving the whole thing a classic rock feel that merged edgily with the band�s own punkish sensibilities, it was, as always, Bators� viperous lyrics that brought the whole thing into the twilight zone of pre-Internet intrigue. The 80s politicking of Margaret Thatcher�s Britain and Reagan�s cold war America pretty much ensured that both sides were far happier not having to open their eyes. A gleeful Bators was there, though, to make sure they did.
(AMG)

The Cure meets Tamlla Motown ,well sort of, the ideas in Robert Smiths head celebrated the sound of black America yet still kept their fledgling gothic credentials intact.A syncopated bass line and drum pattern is supported by a persistant but low fi organ ,the song goes from sinister and unerving to joyous and euphoric in just a couple of minutes thanks to some well timed horns and hand claps whilst the original rhythym never misses a beat.A time when any band could try any thing and occasionally meet with a happy accident.

This is surely one of the most powerful, windswept songs ever, relying on the synths (and the lyrics) to create a strong aura of desolation. The verses have minimal backing but it all comes pouring in when the choruses arrive. Not too far off "Black Celebration" era Depeche Mode, which is by far my favourite LP by that band ...

You think you know the Goo Goo Dolls right? Iris, Black Balloon... BLAH BLAH BLAH.

This song is from their 1993 release Superstar Carwash. We Are the Normal was co-written by former Replacements artist Paul Westerburg.

The Althea and Donna version of this song is the original, but Ali & Frazier's is the best. I heard it on an album called 100% Reggae that I taped off a CD in Japan and then subsequently left in a tape player that I returned to KMart because it didn't work.
But if you diligently search on Kazaa or something similar, you can probably find it.

See me in me heels and ting
Dem check sey we hip and ting
True them no know and ting
We have them going and ting
Nah pop no style, a strictly roots
Nah pop no style, a strictly roots

No diss on the Pixies, especially being a big fan myself, but there are times that I think Mr. Black Black has displayed a far more interesting range since breaking up the band. Teenager of the Year will always be up for consideration on my all-time top ten. I think that it's sadly and unfairly dismissed by too many people. But maybe I can assuage and tempt some of those doubters with this gem.

Inspired by real history and/or the movie "Chinatown," the subject matter is about bringing the Colorado river to the thirsty City of Angels, by hook or by crook, and all the fortune and fame to be had by the one to do it, thus the title. That's what makes the lyrics so fun.

But the real thrill is the "fukk yeah!" abandon of this melodically-twisting tune. It plain rocks...and is brain food to boot. I swear Eric Drew Feldman, of Pere Ubu fame, who produced and played on this album, takes Black's songs to magnificent heights. I've yet to hear a better album of his work.

This sample is an outro-guitar slide into homebase supplied by Lyle Workman. Standing as one of my all-time fave guitar parts, it is at once fret-adept, rhythmically punchy, and pure electrical flow exhiliration. Ol�!

Pixies gone raw.

The bell chimes on the intro both haunt me and pull me into the song. From that point on I'm hooked until the end. Nice guitar hook in the middle. I just find it quite flawless as a song. Everything was layered out rather neatly.

An Ennio Morricone/flamenco/mariachi combination perhaps? I'm afraid I'm unable to adequately describe the majesty of this recording. It was included in the CD that accompanied the July 1999 issue of Uncut magazine and is also available on the "The Ride (pt 2)" single. Even if you have the shorter version on The Black Light, you'll want to hear this.

I was really into the Polyphonic Spree record about a year ago and read somewhere that frontman Tim Delaughter was the singer in Tripping Daisy. There were some pretty rabid recommendations on Amazon for the third TD album - "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb," so I ordered a used copy. It took a few spins to get into, but damn it's a keeper. Melodic art pop heaven. If ya care: it's produced by Eric Drew Feldman - who was a member of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, played keyboards for Pere Ubu for a while, and also produced some of Frank Black's earlier solo stuff.

Anyways, as its title suggests, "Our Drive to the Sun / Can a Man Mark it?" comes in two parts. "Our Drive ..." is sunshiney modern pop in the vein of the Flaming Lips, with hooks galore (there are like four parts that could qualify as killer choruses). At about the four minute mark, the track morphs into "Can a Man ...", which sounds something like a Gary Numan song remixed by Kevin Shields. Great change ups throughout and just a real nice listen.

Very lo-fi indie pop, there's something incredibly endearing and plaintive about this song. Guitar, drum machine, toy keyboards, and multi-tracked vocals.

This simple song has a kind of wan beauty and a lovely piano and strings backing. The relationship lyric is a good one which seems an ideal foil to Hal David's "Why do birds..." from "(They long to be) Close to you".

Romanian gypsy music at its best:
- fast rhythm and chord progressions that make you listen in anticipation
- singer's voice (singing in Romanian/Gypsy?) rough sincerity reminds me of an old black delta bluesman
- the coolest violin riff ever.

Y'know...I really like the latest Dandy Warhols album, in spite of myself. I've never been able to stand them, as they are as about as close a thing to actual rock stars as we have here in Portland. As a result, there's just an awful lot of bitterness in the air. I think that I finally came to the realization that their particular brand of coke-sniffing antics are precisely what I want out of a rock & roll group. I want there to be rock stars on the grand 70s scale again. Somebody has got to inherit Mick Jagger's rightful place as the man to be. I'm not saying that Courtney Taylor should be that man, but at least he's on the right track. This song in particular...as strange as it sounds...it reminds me of the Offspring, but in a good way. And that's the way with a lot of this album. There are songs here that remind me a lot of Beck, ones that remind me a lot of Frank Black and of course the obvious Stones pastiches. In short, there's nothing earth-shatteringly original...but hasn't rock & roll always been about copying what's come before and trying to make it your own? I mean, where would the Beatles have been without Chuck Berry?

DJ Food's Kaleidoscope was a mind-blowing record for me when I first heard it, and I'm still very fond of it after countless listens. I guess I liked it for many of the same reasons I initially liked Tipsy's Trip Tease; they both took samples I was familiar with, or at least some of which I was familiar with, and pushed them in totally unexpected directions. DJ Food's samples are perhaps more varied and less dense than Tipsy's but still just as finely and imaginatively put together. It's hard for me to single out favorite tracks on this record, but this one is a great piece of modern Exotica. The primary sample here is "By The Waters of Minnetonka" from Stanley Black's "Exotic Percussion" record on London's Phase 4 label. There are some other nice touches including harp, slide guitar, bird sounds, and even a little Ravel ("Daphnis et Chloe"). Highly recommended.

'Set Out Running' is from Neko Case's second album 'Furnace Room Lullaby'. The album was recorded for Mint Records in Canada and is licensed to Bloodshot Records in the US.

Case has matured as a writer and 'Set Out Running' is proof. It is a haunting song of love, loss and fear, and never fails to move me I listen to it.

Keep an eye-out for a new release from Case. It is called 'Blacklisted' and is set to be released in the summer of 2002.

Neko Case and Her Boyfriends are currently on tour opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

This album has been so amazing to listen to lately. From the beginning riff that is looped and over and over and enventually shifted around 360 degrees with a simple delay into a beautiful guitar arrangement and of course Boris' most notable feedback/fuzz perfection. Much like the new album, this arrangement reminds me of the type of music Godspeed You Black Emperor might make if they were a little darker, a little heavier, and a lot more Japanese. From the solos to the repetition of drums and sludge, I can always throw this on riding the train home and forget about all the ugly bullshit I had to put up with during the day.

There are many echoes of Morricone here of course, but they're incorporated into a sophisticated, subtle and original musical aesthetic rather than just being lifted.

I'm as unclear as ever about what Alison Goldfrapp is singing about in this song or indeed many others, but musically it's so very good that I am not too bothered.

Point of curiosity/interest: Andy Davis and Stuart Gordon of The Korgis play on some tracks on this first Goldfrapp album; Davis also plays on the follow-up "Black Cherry".

A long track (23 min) with orchestral sound. About the album: "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is unusual in being structurally and conceptually closer to a symphony than a conventional pop or rock album. The four tracks are composed of internal movements, with different sub-titles, that fade into each other. The whole album is instrumental, except for sampled voice inserts, and starts with an almost orchestral crescendo somewhat reminiscent of Ravel's Bolero." (http://en.wikipedia.org/) <- basically the same goes for the track.

I like it because of the dark and powerful feeling it conveys.

Lyrics:

Please remedy my confusion
And thrust me back to the day
The silence of your seclusion
Brings night into all you say

Pull me down again
And guide me into pain

I'm counting nocturnal hours
Drowned visions in haunted sleep
Faint flickering of your power
Leaks out to show what you keep

Pull me down again
And guide me into...

There is failure inside
This test I can't persist
Kept back by the enigma
No criteria demanded here

Deadly patterns made my wreath
Prosperous in your ways
Pale ghost in the corner
Pouring a caress on your shoulder

Puzzled by shrewd innocence
Runs a thick tide beneath
Ushered into inner graves
Nails bleeding from the struggle

It is the end for the weak at heart always the same
A lullaby for the ones who've lost all reeling inside
My gleaming eye in your necklace reflects stare of primal regrets
You turn your back and you walk away never again

Spiraling to the ground below
Like Autumn leaves left in the wake to fade away
Waking up to your sound again
And lapse into the ways of misery.

This song is the embodiment of Opeth's sound, and one of the most powerful to me from an emotional perspective in the entire catalog.

The recording may be raw, but this song reeks of pure insane genius. 60's-inspired organ-fueled sleaze. The band boasts the former organist of "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black". This is one of many instrumental numbers consisting of guitar, organ, shakers and what sounds like an old drum machine. Shamelessly derivitive, lo-fi and spooky. It's one part surf and equal parts garage and swing. Henry Mancini-meets-The Mummies-meets-The Stray Cats.

Neko puts her golden throat to this sultry old soul number and creates magic.

It is one of the few covers on her new album 'Blacklisted' but is the one where she really demonstrates her voice's depth, range and emotion.

Simply brilliant.

Neko Case has dropped 'the Boyfriends' and pushed the musical boundaries with her new album 'Blacklisted.'

She's moving away from alt. country and incorporating more elements from jazz, soul and experimental music.

The best example of this is Outro for Bees (Reprise), a hidden track on the album. It incorporates jazz(ish) vocals with found sounds to create music that sounds like a badly tuned radio. Very effective and musically challenging...I'd like to hear more like this from her!

A technically astonishing piece of Egyptian-influenced death metal by a bunch of Americans from the swamps of Florida. For those not initiated in the relentless grind of thrashing guitars, double-bass tub-thumping and unholy growling vocals this is about as subtle as a horse's cock. And about as appealing as well. Make no mistake, this is brutal but in a market dominated by tedious and unchallenging MTV-friendly nu-metal, that any band can try and succeed in pulling this off is two welcome fingers in the face of Fred Durst and his pals.

Another track from pre-Dare Human League. This is the League's version of Ennio Morricone's Funeral March from Sergio Leone's 1969 western, Once Upon A Time In The West. Like the League's interpretation of You've Lost That Loving Feeling, the track a is slow-paced, electronic beauty.

It was originally recorded in the late 1970s and received its first public airing on the recently released The Golden Hour Of The Future.

This album, actually credited to The Future and The Human League, compiles recordings made between 1977 and the moment The Human League signed to Virgin Records in 1979. The Future is The Human League's first name.

The very mysterious DJ Black Lodge, from Manchester. This is a person who played his cards so close to his chest that his first couple of singles didn't even name the tracks.

Blood / Brass combines the music from Dumbo (that 'Pink Elephants' tune) and some heavy dub. And, if that doesn't sound genius to you, well, I do despair.

A pendant's note: this track actually apears on two singles, his first on Acupuncture (where it appeared untitled and without so much dub content), and the remixed version that I am recommending here, a limited-edition release on an unknown label through the Rough Trade shop.

Satanist surf rock! (or a reasonable facsimile of that would sound like, anyway.)
From the land of polar bears and fjords
comes this insanely massive-sounding piece of black metal with a heavy dose of Dick Dale influences. It's quite poppy for a black metal tune, if you can see past the growling. I have to admit I've never actually listened too closely to the lyrics, i'm sure they're very misantrophic and gloomy and all, but this song feels very uplifting to me somehow. same thing as with Primal Scream's Detroit and Ennio Morricone's Magic and Extacy, i guess.
the synth effects round it out nicely, the guitars are fast and furious, and you got to love that drumming.


(One of these days I'm gonna have to make a mixtape with the world's most glaringly insane shifts of tone from one song to the next. This will fit nicely in between Dean Martin and Jean Jaques Perrey...)

I like a lot of the Black Keys music but I'll Be Your Man is my favorite. Their music is hard to explain. It has a lot soul. It sounds kind of like new motown if that makes any since. I think fans of motown music will enjoy this song.

This is the best track on Cilla's new CD, 'Beginnings', its a cover, but she does it very well indeed.

Wonderfully lush, yet dark electronica. Alison Goldfrapp's excellent voice shines on a landscape dominated by synthesizers of various vintages. When she stops singing, the synths fizz even more.

A track from Cilla's recent album which really should have been a single, excellently sung and produced

on a post-moldy peaches roll today.
lo-fi, blackly humorous, unrelenting singer-songwriter antifolk material. the lyrics are a stream-of-consciousness portrait of life in lower-class america, filled with weirdo pop culture references. i fell in love with this song from a badly recorded live version, available on her homepage: http://www.kimyadawson.com/audio/10_Kimya_Dawson_-_The_Beer.mp3
there`s an album version of the track on "my cute friend sweet princess", but i think it lacks a lot of the drive from the live recording (and the sound quality`s not really that much better, anyway. i wonder how this would sound on one of those ludicrously expensive hi fi sets that guys in cornflower-blue shirts tend to buy)

"even though i`ve never ever been in a band,
i`ve got cool as black ice tattooed on my hand.." gotta love that line.

Enormous, gorgeous, hard-rocking (what a silly phrase) song about hedonism/surrender/desperation/"goin' for a ride." Like "Born To Run," "Baba O'Riley," and "Let's Go Crazy" thrown in a blender and soundtracking a black-and-white indie film.

The title track from Goldfrapp�s second LP is everything pop music should be � sexy, glamorous, smart and weird - but rarely is these days. If their debut album was all about, in the duo�s own words, �Ennio Morricone and disco�, then the follow-up is all about disco and�Ennio Morricone � only wrapped in a shimmering gown early 1980�s inspired electronic textures. Electro-clash with heart and soul, a Madonna song with 170 I.Q., a tune for Milva to sing on Moonbase Alpha � I could go on and on�

Dan Auerbach plays slide guitar in this raw and emotional song. Simple yet moving. The Blues comes out in all of us in one point in time.

Stark synth, morose, negative lyric, Sarah Blackwood's excellent delivery.

The track on the cd is rude so i put the radio track name. I dont really understand why the Black eyed peas are so popular but thats just a matter of taste.

In an easy listening mood today.
From the oft-panned disk two of the frank black francis release, comes this brilliant reinterpretation of the holiday song from the Pixies' glory days.
This version is driven by dubby, spacy trumpets and echo effect, with a lone guitar taking the back seat. I like how Frank's voice is mixed way in front, and the overwhelmingly happy tone of the whole thing. The Pixies for cocktail parties.

Grooving. funky bassline, mute and open trumpets above black voices, thin rhythm guitar.
Beautiful stuff of the young, rather unkown band Soulounge from Hamburg. If anybody knows a more grooving tune, please tell me.

It is very romantic and beautiful.

this is possibly the first Motown-influenced Doves number i've heard -- and it's fucken brill, with the right dose of thumping beaty-ness, atmospherics and excellent lyrics. as it is, i suspect that "Some Cities", the band's new album will be on my list of Top 10 Records of the year... but this track totally knocked my socks off, and is now slated to be a mixtape favourite too. :-)

I normally don't like this sort of music, but My Style, actually the whole Monkey Business album is one of my favorites. It's in the select few of complete albums on my iPod, and I love listening to it when I'm working out or just having a party. I listen to it when I play chess! To my knowledge, the track in question is mainly audio loops or digitally- created noises.

Overall, it's a fun song to sing along with.

I love how this scottish girl spice up her pop songs with a little blues. This song gives me a lot of energy. Makes me dance in the streets!!

This is fairly trippy, hypnotic really, but has more of a song structure than the rest of the Black Angels's stuff. After a few times of listening to this song, snatches of it floated through my brain for days afterword, which is a good thing. really. you should listen to it, though be warned it may take a little bit of time to get used to it and like it, but it's totally worth it.

My best friend recommended these guys to me recently. She knows how I love the old Curtis Mayfield and Earth Wind and Fire stuff. These guys have that type of favor.

You can hear them on their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/secrecyone

Be my midnight swimmer and I'll be your sea salt lips, be my cold-blooded killer and I'll be your fingertips.
Lyrics this good are few and far between, Simon Aldred is a genius, fully deserving his Ivor Novello and deserving of far more recognition. Get it in your ears, you won't regret it.